Highlands Hospital officials are questioning why it lost a Fayette County contract to Uniontown Hospital.
Michelle Cunningham, hospital chief executive officer, sent a letter to the the Fayette County commissioners inquiring why a contract was awarded to Uniontown Hospital instead of the Connellsville health care facility which has handled inpatient psychiatric services for residents who are a part of the Value Behavioral Health-PA, Healthchoices Program. The program offers mental health and drug and alcohol services to its members.
She said losing the contract will affect the hospital’s financial stability and could result in layoffs.
“Highlands Hospital has been told numerous times by Value Behavioral Health (VBH) that our care of county patients is ‘one of the best,’ citing Highlands’ low length of stay and our excellent quality,” said Cunningham in the July 13 letter to the commissioners. “We have been present at these meetings when (VBH) praised our quality and told us how much money we have saved the county.
“Furthermore, the history, quality, and potential of Highlands behavioral health services warranted funding from the USDA for a major renovation of one of our two units.”
Cunningham said that the hospital board of trustees, staff and administration were baffled when admissions to the unit began to decline during the first quarter of the year.
It was later learned that a new contract was negotiated with Uniontown Hospital, she added, which she believed caused the admission decrease.
Cunningham alleges that the contract with Uniontown Hospital was not formally approved by the county commissioners and that county VBH Executive Director Lisa Ferris entered into an agreement with Uniontown Hospital without any consideration of Highlands’ past success as a provider.
Cunningham said that Ferris falsely claims that Highlands’ behavioral health units were reaching capacity.
In fact, said Cunningham, Ferris is aware that the hospital can accommodate the patients and that she was so advised as Uniontown Hospital was contemplating the opening of a similar unit two years ago.
“According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, in order for a new behavioral health inpatient unit to be opened, it must have a letter of support from (the county VBH) administrator,” said Cunningham. “I was told directly by the state Department of Health, that since inpatient admissions have declined over the years, only one hospital per county should provide inpatient behavioral health services for efficiency purposes.”
During her investigation, Cunningham said that she was advised that the county VBH was “pressured by the commissioners” to award the contract to Uniontown Hospital.
Cunningham said that County Commission Chairman Al Ambrosini should not be a part of approving any contracts with Uniontown Hospital as his wife is a senior executive for the hospital. County commissioner Vincent Zapotosky, she added, was initially unaware of the matter when he was contacted, and commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink is a proponent of bringing all matters to a public meeting for discussion and action.
“So, who are the commissioners who influenced the improper awarding of this contract?” she said.
Ambrosini did not return a telephone message on Tuesday seeking comment about the matter.
Cunningham said that the new arrangement will be costly to Highlands.
“It will be very difficult for Highlands Hospital to continue cost efficiencies with the pool of inpatient admissions now being spread across two facilities because of this unnecessary duplication of services and the excess capacity it has created,” she said. “As a result, we are meeting with the manager of the behavioral health units to discuss potential layoffs.
“We will certainly inform every employee whose paycheck is impacted why this has happened.
“Eighteen beds at Uniontown Hospital will not make or break them financially (whereas) 31 behavioral health beds of our 71-bed total will financially cripple the hospital, impacting our entire range of services.”
Zapotosky said that he was aware of the allegations and hoped a meeting with all parties would resolve the matter.
In a letter dated July 19, Ambrosini and Zapotosky asked Cunningham, Ferris, county solicitor John Cupp and Paul Bacharach, Uniontown Hospital chief executive officer/president and any other relevant parties to meet with the commissioners.
Zapotosky said that it is his understanding that Highlands continues to be listed as a service provider in the program, but acknowledges that Uniontown also offers the same services to those within the VBH program.
“I have supported Highlands Hospital in the past and I want to see that this is resolved,” he said.
Zimmerlink said that she has corresponded with Cunningham since her receipt of the letter and advised her that she would look into the matter.
Cunningham responded to Zimmerlink offering her appreciation for her attention to the concerns of the hospital.
“We are trusting that you and the other commissioners will provide us with a prompt written response,” she said. “We will then be glad to meet with the commissioners once we have had the opportunity to review your findings.”
Zimmerlink also extended an invitation to Cunningham to meet with all parties concerned in the matter.
Cunningham, meanwhile, said as the commissioners investigate the matter, the hospital will continue to offer its services to those in need.
“We will continue to serve the people of this region with commitment, compassion, and quality care,” she said.
(4) comments
Many residents of Fayette County have contacted me about this situation specifically asking if the Commissioners have been in contact with Highlands Hospital to attempt to resolve the matter.
The answer is yes. Upon receipt of Ms. Cunningham's letter she and I communicated and I then sent her a letter (copying 2 commissioners) on Thursday July 19th seeking available dates from her and HH representatives so that the 3 commissioners could meet with the appropriate parties.
Yesterday, July 24th, Ms. Cunningham responded to my letter (copying the 2 commissioners) indicating that the commissioners should move ahead with our meeting/investigation of the matter and to contact HH after we have done so.
Accordingly, yesterday morning I circulated dates/times to my fellow 2 commissioners, FCBHA staff and solicitor for a meeting today, Thurs or Friday of this week.
Yesterday afternoon, Nicole Young, administrative assistant to Commissioner Ambrosini sent an email to Cunningham, Bacharach, and others with an attached letter dated last Thurs, July 19th offering dates to meet in the month of August. I was surprised to receive this correspondence given that it was sent to the CEO's of both hospitals just yesterday back dating the letter and only signed by 2 commissioners.
Granted that meeting will most likely not occur given that the 2 commissioners had earlier that day received a copy of te correspondence from HH stating we should investigate on own and get back to HH afterwards.
The bottom line is that this matter has been at issue since Ms. Cunningham's letter to the Commissioners dated July 13 and as Ms. Cunningham's letter states even before as she, Lisa Kusniar and Comm Zapotosky had earlier spoken as an attempt to resolve the matter.
Given that and what has transpired since the prudent thing to do would be to stop emailing and writing letters and instead ACTUALLY MEET. To that end, if I do not hear back from my fellow commissioners today confirming their availability for a meeting today, Thurs or Friday, I shall pick one of those and meet with the solicitor, FCHBA and report the same.
I do not know how this matter will turn out however I do know that I will do my due diligence in attempting to resolve it.
Why would Highlands need to meet with the CEO of Uniontown? It seems that the commissioners need to investigate what happened and report it to Highlands. This is a very unfortunate situation. I hope there is a logical explanation for it.
I wish they would mention that the BHU is adjacent from the pediatric unit. UH may not get a lot of pediatric patients but they do get them and you can hear these patients screaming and fighting down the pediatric hallway. If UH would have stuck with their initial guidelines (was supposed to be a geriatric BHU) and quit paying upper management for putting them in the hole for years, they wouldn't be in this situation to try and acquire more contracts for more patient revenue. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't want my child in the hospital trying to get better while there are psychos, sickos and who knows what down that hallway.
I am so tired of Michelle misleading the citizens of thr county. She is trying to cause an uproar in the community. First Highlands did not lose their VBH contract. Both hospitals have a VBH contract. Second Michelle claims VBH has complimented the psychiatric care there. Oh please. The place is so poorly run by the current manager Susan Mongell. She doesn't even have a degree and never worked in mental health. The patients are lucky to get 1 group a day. All the patients do is get meds, sleep, and watch tv. Also they mix children with adults on the unit. Some of which are sexual predators. Michelle seems to forget that many patients have been turned away because of the high turnover rate of nurses. Often these patients have been sent 2 hours away to Clarion and families have to drive there to visit family members. Third if there would be layoffs it would be because of the remodeling. The first floor (19 beds) will be closed and only the second floor (12 beds) will be open. Where does she expect the remaining psych patients to go? It would make sense to keep these patients close to home. Also there have been numerous citations from the pa dept of health recently and details are available on the pa dept of health website. I've had family members in that unit and was filthy and dirty.
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